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Published: August 5th 2007
Well I think I'll run out of superlatives trying to describe the mountains I've just seen in the Karakoram range. They are just breathtaking. I had stunning views of K2 from its Base camp, similarly of Broad Peak which we passed enroute. Although we had quite a few days with cloud, we got to see most of the big peaks as we travelled up the Baltoro galcier - I think it could be a long slide show!
The Pakistani people who were with us on the trek were great and very friendly - some of the cooks could speak a bit of English and the Guide could, so I got him to teach me some Urdu which I would try out on unsuspecting Porters! The other trekkers were a great crowd and we all got on very well. Four of us were 43 years old, with the other member being a lady of 65 who had a hip replacement operation 8 months ago - and she managed everything we did, so age is no excuse! We were very lucky to have David Hamilton as our Trek leader. He is an experienced mountaineer (summitted Everist 3 times) so when we heard on the way up the Baltoro glacier that the Ghondogoro La pass was closed, he said he'd try to get us over it. In fact we made it and were the first trekking group to go across - most other groups were going back down the same way which would have been soul destroying.
I can honestly say that it is the hardest trek I have ever done. This is mainly because for most of the time we were walking on glaciers, either moraine, which involved lots of boulder hopping, or walking up and down steep white ice with a thin covering of stones and often slippery due to running melt-water. Also we walked for 12 days without a rest day, averaging 4-6 hours a day, with the crossing over the pass taking me 10 hours; I don't think I've ever been so exhausted as on that day. The snow was soft, so for a large part of it we were walking up ever steepening snow slopes up to our knees in snow, often sinking in deeper. Luckily, we were all roped up, as I found a crevace - my left leg sunk in up to my thigh and I could feel my foot had broken through to air! Thankfully, the rest of my body stayed on the surface, although it was a struggle to extract myself. I also had to climb up a near vertical section, using my ice axe in one hand to keep me on the mountain and holding onto a slippery rope with the other (which I was also attached to with my sling & karabineer), then trying to kick steps with my crampons - exciting stuff as there was a big bergschrund crevace off to one side!
This is not a trek for the faint-hearted as there were numerous times when a slip or trip would have sent me falling down steep slopes to certain injury or death! You need to be completely confident in your balance and ability to walk across narrow paths / scree slopes / jump across boulders in fast flowing rivers / jump across crevaces.
Also, the journey to the start of the trek was a real white knuckle ride as well, bumping along narrow, uneven dirt roads in Jeeps with hundred foot drops down to the raging Indus river below us. The flight to Skardu was cancelled, so we set off up the Karakoram Highway only to find there had been big landslides and it was blocked, so we had to backtrack a bit on day two then take an infrequently used route over a high mountain pass to get back onto the KKH after the landslide - what excitement... So it took us 3 days to get to the start instead of 1 hour if the flight had run, or 2 days on the KKH. Still, we got to see a lot of countryside, which I really enjoyed.
I'm now in Skardu and we are supposed to fly out tomorrow, so fingers crossed for no cloud, otherwise it'll be another 2 days in a minibus on the KKH.
p.s. PLEASE can you remove me from your general email lists/reply all emails about walks, trips etc - I looked at my emails today and had 33 of which only 3 were relevant, and the rest were about things I won't be around for.
p.p.s I will try to add a few photos when I get my camera leads back in Islamabad or later...
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Bob Ingram
non-member comment
Awesome Trip
Hi Helen, good to hear from you again. Sounds like you have had some amazing adventures. A bit more adventurous than our cycling in mud and rain back here. It just won't stop raining, got soaked again tonight out running. Good luck on the rest of your adventures. Where to now after Karakoram? Are you teaching next? Cheers, Bob